


Around the World

by justbygrace



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Sailing AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 20:45:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9343256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justbygrace/pseuds/justbygrace
Summary: "That day had been a normal day by any standards, with no indication that anything would ever be different."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, now this takes it back. I first wrote this almost exactly three years ago. I wrote this as a prompt fic for a particularly kind reviewer on TSP.

That day had been a normal day by any standards, with no indication that anything would ever be different. Rose was on her lunch break and had decided to wander down to the shore front; there was something intoxicating about the smell of salt and the look of the sailing crafts that beckoned her. She knew it was unlikely she'd ever actually sail, she had obligations, family, responsibility, but just wandering among the brightly colored boats couldn't hurt anyone. She was halfway down the dock when she spotted a man on one of the boats, bound to a chair with tape across his mouth. Ordinarily she wouldn't have done anything, she was used to keeping her head down and staying out of trouble, but this was the middle of the day amongst expensive boats, not the wrong side of the tracks after midnight.

She approached him cautiously, eyes alert for whoever had done this. As she got closer to the man, she couldn't help but notice his flyaway chestnut hair and gorgeous brown eyes, though this had, of course, nothing to do with why she was suddenly doubly interested in freeing him from the unknown marauders. Rose was nearly on board the boat before he noticed her and then he gave her a wide-eyed look and a shake of his head. She paid him no mind, intent on her task. She tip-toed around him until she was close enough to pull the tape off his mouth, which she did with a vigorous tug, the result being a prolonged yell from the man, a noise she thought a bit foolhardy of him under the circumstances.

When he got his breath back, he hastily explained that he wasn't actually in mortal peril, he had recently taken an interest in magic and oh, by the way, his name was the Doctor and it was really nice to meet her. Rose was so far beyond embarrassed, she rather thought it was a miracle she didn't spontaneously combust. She blushed and stuttered and tried to wish the floor to open up underneath of her. Sadly, her wishing did no good and she stayed right where she was. The Doctor was happy to make her acquaintance, not to mention being extremely talkative - the amount of words that man put in a single sentence should have been illegal, and probably was somewhere. When he had untied himself, he offered to show her around the boat and she found herself agreeing for no reason other than that she wanted to. 

By the time he had finished talking (and long after he had finished showing her around his remarkably large boat - seriously she had no idea how all those rooms fit), it was mid-afternoon and she had sort of forgotten that she was actually supposed to be selling slogan shirts to tourists, not cavorting with one of said tourists. By the time she recollected this fact, she was reclining on a deck chair, drinking something fruity, and listening to him tell stories about his adventures. It turned out that he lived on this boat (the TARDIS he called it with more than a hint of pride) and had for quite some time. She had no reason to believe he wasn't telling the truth. He had a certain aura of truthfulness about him and the only thing that made her question his sanity, besides his never ending gob, was the fact that he was wearing a floor length coat in the middle of summer, but allowances must be made.

Dusk was falling by the time she recalled that she had essentially spent nearly six hours with some stranger, though he was a great deal less of a stranger now, and mentioned that she really ought to be going. At her words his expression fell and he suddenly bore a striking resemblance to a kicked puppy, seriously, his brown eyes went wide and his hair drooped, literally drooped, with her words. The sight of him made her think that he was actually very lonely despite his tales of daring adventure and her heart went out to him. She had always had a thing for forgotten and broken things, not to mention lost puppies. 

She opened her mouth to offer something, she wasn't sure quite what, perhaps a home cooked meal (well, chips from her favorite local place) or perhaps a social visit tomorrow, but he beat her to it, talking about an upcoming world tour race and how it was a thing for two people and how he really wanted to enter but couldn't because of the whole two people thing. She debated internally for several minutes during which time his entire body sagged and he eventually got up and walked to the far side of the boat, hands stuffed in his pockets and shoulders set. It was the realization that he was all set for her to say no that made her say yes; she really did hate it when people told her what she was going to do before she had made up her own mind. The change in him was astounding, he hopped and bounced around the deck, grabbing her by the hands, and twirling her in joyous circles and she wondered what on earth she was getting in to. 

They left three days later and her mum and her ex-boyfriend questioned her mental state and when they got to the registration (and the starting line) and she discovered when he said it was a "thing for two people" what he had really meant was it was a "thing for couples" she questioned her own mental state, but a promise was a promise and the one thing Rose Tyler never did was go back on a promise. So, she lifted her chin, allowed the Doctor to wrap his arms around her when they got their picture taken, and signed on the dotted line that proclaimed her as the Doctor's plus one. 

According to the Doctor, the average time for this race was two years, but he was confident they would make it in a year. It never occurred to her that he wasn't joking, well, it didn't occur to her until they were a month into the trip and they had only made it just past Spain. By then it was much too late to ask him to put her in at the nearest port, besides the whole promise thing, she was just enjoying herself too much. Also her mobile had been swept overboard during the first week. 

As the weeks progressed, Rose found herself getting stronger and the wind, rain, and sun bothered her less and less. She also discovered something that she had not been expecting, but in retrospect figured she probably should have, she was developing something of a thing for the Doctor. He was attractive, had great hair, and was extremely fit from all of his sailing experience, not to mention interesting, charming, and only too willing to offer his hand to hold or dance around the deck after a good day's sailing. At first she thought he might return her affections, he did have a tendency to hug her for no reason other than that he could, but after an uncomfortable run-in with an old mate of the Doctor's (the two women had eventually bonded over his eccentric habits) and an unfortunate incident in a port in Brazil involving a French Ambassador's consort and running for their lives from angry soldiers, Rose concluded that she was just another in a long line of sailing companions and figured she ought to make the best of this adventure since it was likely to be her only one.

By the time they reached the south Pacific Ocean, Rose knew nearly as much about the technical terms and what to do in an emergency as the Doctor did, and by the time they reached the north Pacific Ocean and the temperatures were dropping every day, Rose was confident in her abilities to sail the boat with or without its intrepid Captain. Which is right about when they ran into a band of angry fishermen (who turned out to be smuggling drugs into Canada) who thought that the Doctor and Rose were encroaching on their territory. The Doctor had the good grace to look ashamed, he was the one who had mouthed off to angry, cold, drug smugglers after all, and Rose forgave him as easily as she had his other many indiscretions, figuring he would get them out of this mess as easily as he had the others. It wasn't until the smugglers separated them and threatened to destroy the boat that Rose became significantly more worried. The Doctor found her thirty minutes after she was left in a cave (presumably to die) and didn't seem overly eager to talk about the hows or whys of his escape, although he did hug her for a very long time afterwards.

After that the Doctor showered her with affection with greater abandon. Whatever had held him back before had apparently been left somewhere in the frozen plains of Alaska. They battled storms around the coast of Russia, angry sharks near China, food poisoning while at a party in Taiwan, and a horde of unsavory kangaroos in Australia. They also joined in on a birthday party in New Zealand, celebrated a soccer game in South Africa, petted some friendly dolphins in the Indian Ocean, kissed during a lightning storm off the coast of the Congo, and participated in a festival in Morocco. They made love for the first time after an incident involving an orphan girl, a charcoal drawing, and a host of rabid cats. In some ways it felt like an ending and in others it was a beginning and Rose wondered why she had ever thought that traveling with this man had been a bad idea.

They made it back to England one year, eleven months, and forty-two days after they left, and though they were not the first couple back, they were not the last either. Neither of them really cared. When they docked back in Rose's seaside town, she was as reluctant to leave the ship as he seemed to be to let her go, though neither of them said anything. When she invited him back to meet her mum, he hemmed and hawed and eventually agreed, shoving his hands in his pockets and obviously dragging his feet. Halfway there, she pried his hand from its death grip on his coat fabric and clutched it with her own. He grinned at her and pulled her around the edge of a storefront to kiss her breathless against a brick wall. 

Her mum slapped him and hugged her and cried when she saw them and only then did Rose remember about drowned mobiles and the obviously faulty communication devices that the Doctor had sworn worked. He shrugged and held a hand to his cheek and never once let go of her hand. Rose hugged her mum and cried a little, but they weren't the tears of the girl that had left, they were the tears of the woman was just visiting. 

The Doctor and Rose stayed in the town for almost a week before he woke her in the middle of the night to ask if she had ever been backpacking or mountain climbing and doesn't that sound like fun, Rose? Rose was not so sure that it did, but the sight of him with that manic light of adventure in his eye (not to mention that puppy dog plea thing he was rather adept at by now) was enough to convince her to hug her mum and pack the rest of her childhood bedroom and set sail for Tibet and another adventure together, the Doctor and Rose in their ship, as it should be.


End file.
